Disclosure Information
Automotive vehicles having vehicle control systems typically include vehicle motion sensors which serve to trigger the actuation of the active brake control system when a fault signal or condition is detected. Further, a vehicle motion sensor fault may often invalidate the wheel speed information by triggering the actuation of the active brake control system, thereby resulting in undesired vehicle braking. Moreover, speed differences across wheel speed sensors are sensitive to the braking control system actuation and are thus poor sources for the reproduction of vehicle motion signal in the even of a sensor fault. Therefore, it is desirable to detect a motion sensor fault which is insensitive to wheel braking actuation, and which is also independent of the differences across wheel speed sensors, left versus right.
While U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,117 addresses the issue of a fault detection for an active brake control diagnostic, it is based on wheel speed differences between left and right wheels, which has the aforementioned disadvantages.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method for detecting fault in a vehicle control system that is insensitive to wheel braking actuation, and independent of wheel speed differences. The method should also be able to detect fault independent of the specific fault type and also detect fault that is otherwise not detectable by checking electrical specifications.